In 1908, a young teacher and photographer, Lewis Hine, was hired by the National Child Labor Committee to document evidence of child labor primarily on the East Coast and in the South. Hine had previously photographed arriving immigrants at Ellis Island and even then, his photos showed an extraordinary sensibility, one filled with respect, dignity, and equality. Hine's work helped introduce America to the issues of child labor at a time when the glories of Industrialization were filling the coffers of the rich, while beginning ever so slightly, to offer promises of economic advancement for those of the working class. Hine's pictures were worth more than a thousand words as he established the camera as an actor in social change. His heirs are many: the Photo League, Sebasti o Salgado and perhaps even social documentary filmmakers like Michael Moore. Today artists continue to bear witness to perceived injustices, while at the same time prompting post-modern questions about the objectivity' of the photograph and its makers.

PRIVATE RIGHTS AND PUBLIC FIGHTS
With an expanded eight-week season, this year Action Speaks looks at moments when the rights of the individual have clashed with the needs or beliefs of the public-and where the line between private and public has been defined or blurred.
Host Marc Levitt and a trio of knowledgeable panelists explore contemporary issues through the lens of history by using underappreciated moments of the twentieth-century.